Britain keeps legal abortion limit at 24 weeks

Britain keeps legal abortion limit at 24 weeks

Britain’s Parliament has voted to keep the upper legal limit on abortion at 24 weeks, disappointing campaigners who argue survival rates have improved.

The vote blocked attempts to lower the legal limit to 22, 20, 16 or 12 weeks in Parliament’s first look at abortion laws in almost two decades.

The upper limit was reduced from 28 weeks to 24 weeks in 1990. Britain legalised abortion in 1968.

Many European countries allow abortion on demand up to 12 or 13 weeks in to pregnancy, after which it is limited to cases where the baby or mother is at risk.

Termination is legal up to 22 to 24 weeks in Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

For three hours, British Parliamentarians passionately debated the right of women to choose versus the right of a foetus to live.

“While there have been medical advances in caring for premature babies, only a small number born after 24 weeks gestation can survive,” Health Minister Dawn Primarolo told Parliament, arguing for the status quo.

She said there was no scientific evidence showing a significant improvement in a baby’s chance of survival at 24 weeks since the 1990 law.

Labour law-maker Julie Morgan said any move to reduce the upper limit was an attack on abortion and the right to choose.

But proponents of a reduction said it was morally wrong for babies at 24 weeks to be terminated when they could survive and that foetal pain and distress must be taken into account.

“I think there comes a point when it has to be said this baby has a right to life also,” Conservative lawmaker and former nurse Nadine Dorries said, who argued for a 20-week limit and offered a graphic description of late terminations.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown had said he favoured 24 weeks.

Around 200,000 abortions were carried out in Britain in 2006, of which about 3,000 were conducted after 20 weeks, 1.5 per cent of the total.